Tag Archives: veterans

The Joint Chiefs of Staff also have shown their lack of character and honor. They are cowards who do not have the backs of those who serve under them or of those who have ever served this country! May history remember them as the coward YES MEN that they are!

An “Honor Flight” (the charity that brings World War II vets to visit their memorials in Washington, DC for free) is planning on bringing World War II vets to visit their memorial in Washington this weekend. But with the government shutdown, not only is the trip being threatened with cancellation, but the government is threatening to ARREST any vet who tries to enter the memorial! This is after the fact that on Monday, October 1st, World War II vets knocked down barriers blocking the WW2 memorial so they could visit it, which was “closed” because of the government shutdown. Nevermind that this memorial is outdoors and never, ever has barriers around it – so why the need now?

Honor Flight flys veterans to visit their memorials in Washington D.C. free of charge so they can see them. Most of these vets from the greatest generation have never seen the memorials built in their honor for saving the world from Nazi Germany and global tyranny.

Northwest Ohio Honor Flight President Lee Armstrong said, ”We will make the call this Friday to determine if the flight is still a go, or if we will have to re-schedule.” Continue reading →

Here I am again in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C., the highest appeals court for the U.S. military. Last month, I was here to cover Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna’s final appeal. Now I am waiting for Army Sgt. Evan Vela’s final appeal to begin. I glance over at Evan’s father, Curtis Carnahan, and Evan’s wife, Alyssa, sitting together in the otherwise empty first row, and I can’t believe it’s been more than four years since Curtis first emailed me:

“I am Sgt. Evan Vela’s father. I do not know if you have followed my son’s case, but some people have drawn similarities between the Luttrell situation and Evan’s.”

Curtis was referring to Marcus Luttrell, whose 2007 best-seller “Lone Survivor” tells of four Navy SEALs, Luttrell among them, whose 2005 mission in Afghanistan was compromised when two unarmed Afghan goatherds discovered the SEALs hiding deep in Taliban territory. I had written a column discussing the excruciating fact that the thought of being brought up on legal charges in a military court back home weighed so heavily on these young Americans’ minds that they decided not to save their own lives and their mission by killing the two Afghans, but rather to take their chances against the veritable Taliban army the pair would summon against them.

“It was the stupidest, most Southern-fried, lame-brain decision I ever made in my life,” Luttrell later wrote of his decisive vote to let the two Afghans go. As a result of the decision the SEALs made on an Afghan mountaintop far from any courthouse, 19 Americans — Luttrell’s three SEAL teammates and 16 more special forces — would be killed that same day.

But no one went to court.

In Evan’s case, the leader of his elite sniper squad chose the other path. It was May 2007, in insurgent-controlled Iskandariyah, Iraq. When an unarmed Iraqi man compromised the team’s “hide” and refused to cooperate quietly, the team leader chose not to risk drawing local insurgents to their position, but instead ordered Evan to kill the man. As a result of this decision, all of our soldiers came home that day.

But then they went to court. Long saga short, Evan Vela became the only soldier convicted of the killing. He was sentenced to 10 years at Fort Leavenworth military prison — the shortest sentence of the so-called Leavenworth 10, as Curtis reminded me this week, using the nickname for a group of veterans who are incarcerated for a variety of desperate, blurry, fog-of-war shootings.

Listening to the procedural review of Evan’s case, I am struck again by the ghastly surrealism of their plight — the penalties the U.S. government has forced on its most dutiful sons for not committing, in effect, suicide as the Navy SEALs did in choosing to escape prison rather than death.

Meanwhile, literally thousands of incarcerated terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan have been granted clemency or otherwise found their freedom. Recently, Ali Musa Daqduq, a Hezbollah mastermind who confessed to kidnapping, torturing and killing five American soldiers in 2007, walked free in Iraq. In December 2011, President Obama turned over Daqduq to an Iraqi court, which released him this month. According to the most basic moral calculus, this is neither fair nor right. As Republican Rep. Allen West of Florida recently wrote to President Obama, it’s an “utter betrayal.”

I steal another glance at the Carnahans, now focused on the court proceedings. Like the other Leavenworth families, they have been counting off the years by trials, appeals, clemency boards and pleas for congressional support. Back in early 2009, there were flutters in the news about a possible pardon for Evan from outgoing President Bush. Then nothing. No pardon. Which was, to my mind, unpardonable. George W. Bush should have pardoned Evan and the other soldiers, now prisoners, whom he ordered into a confusing, rules-restricted war against an army without uniforms on a battlefield without lines.

And so, the Leavenworth 10 sit in prison: Michael Behenna, Corey Clagett, John Hatley, William Hunsaker, Larry Hutchins, Michael Leahy, Joseph Mayo, Michael Williams, Evan Vela. Newcomer Derrick Miller has joined them. Miller last year drew a life sentence after unsuccessfully claiming self-defense in the killing of a suspected Afghan insurgent who had penetrated his defensive perimeter.

Memorial Day — the day we mourn our war dead — is coming. President Obama, give these men another chance at life. Pardon them.

“Armed Forces Day celebrates you – the men and women in uniform, who have stood fast in the face of adversity with honor, courage and commitment. Wherever you serve on this day, pause to remember those who have gone before, those whose shoulders on which you stand and be proud of your dedication and service to our great nation and Corps.”

“So as the end of my second deployment draws closer and closer, I’ve been pondering a thought, related to the question a lot of Marines are asked, and that question is “Why do we do it?”. I’ve come to the realization that the reason we do what we do changes. For example, ask a young man fresh out of boot camp, or even fresh out of high school about to leave for boot camp, and the typical answers you will get will be along the lines of :”I want to fight for/serve my country.” “My family is part of a military tradition” or “I’m doing it for school benefits.”. These are all excellent and admirable reasons for deciding to pick up a rifle and put your life on the line. Now jump ahead a few years, and this same Marine is now a combat veteran, with 1, 2, even 4 or more tours in Iraq or Afghanistan under his belt. You ask this veteran the same question again, and I will bet anything that I hold dear that his answer will be: “I do it for the men to my left and my right, my brothers.”. All those previous reasons, they simply become a byproduct to being out there with your brothers watching each others back. That’s what we are, brothers who have left blood, sweat, and tears on the battlefield. Your best friend back home for 15 years or more will always be just that, a friend, now that is not a bad thing, everyone needs friends in their lives. However, that man you spent just 7 months with in Afghanistan or Iraq, he is now your brother for life. No one will understand what we do or what we go through except for the people who go through it with us.”

The Afghan man captured on a grainy surveillance video was a known insurgent. And there he was — again — digging a hole for a homemade mine beneath a well-traveled dirt road in Helmand province.

Several Marines in a nearby combat outpost watched the video feed closely, but a decision on what to do fell to 1st Lt. Josh Waddell, executive officer of India Company, who was running the command post on the afternoon of Nov. 1 for 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

Waddell, 25, sprang into action, calling his battalion headquarters to get authorization — what military lawyers call “positive identification” — to launch a strike. From there, he hurriedly issued orders to ground patrol units, sniper teams and aircraft hovering nearby, coordinating a complex operation to kill or capture the enemy.

The insurgent was surrounded by a village full of women and children, so Waddell’s decisions required the kind of nuanced judgment call that has become a hallmark requirement of today’s often murky counterinsurgency missions.

Waddell opted against calling in the helicopter gunships. Instead, he ordered a sniper team to home in on the insurgent. The first sniper shot was high and off-target, sending the man sprinting across a patch of farmland. But other shots struck his leg and stomach. The man dropped and rolled into a ditch for cover. Continue reading →

As a special guest to the biannual President’s Club meeting, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas discusses his remarkable life story, including his grandfather’s impact, which serves as the inspiration for his Thomas’ new best-selling book, “My Grandfather’s Son.”

On this Veteran’s Day, Please Remember the Marine Officer Charged in Haditha Incident

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

ANN ARBOR, MI – Yesterday was the 233rd Birthday of the United States Marine Corps, and today is Veteran’s Day celebrating all Veterans’ service to this great country. The Thomas More Law Center would like to thank all Veterans for their service to this Nation. Through their service, the Thomas More Law Center is able to protect the rights they fought for in our courts.

Almost unbelievably, three years ago Marine Corps Veteran Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani was accused of criminal wrong-doing in the high profile case arising out of a terrorist ambush in Haditha, Iraq, on November 19, 2005, in which one Marine was killed and several others wounded. As Marines moved in on the attacking terrorists who were firing from nearby homes, several civilians were tragically killed.

Months later, after inflammatory media articles and comments by an antiwar politician, LtCol Chessani, the battalion commander of the Marines involved in the fighting, was accused of failing to properly report and investigate the incident.

LtCol Chessani faces a maximum punishment of two and a half years in prison, dismissal (an officer’s equivalent of a dishonorable discharge), and the loss of his retirement benefits.

The Thomas More Law Center, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, agreed to represent LtCol Chessani at no charge. To adequately defend LtCol Chessani, a legal defense fund was set up to make sure that supporters of this great Veteran could donate directly to his cause.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center commented, “LtCol Chessani is a devout family man and Christian, who dutifully defended our country for twenty years, including three tours of duty in Iraq, Panama, and the Persian Gulf War. His wife and six young children should not have to worry about finances to ensure that he receives the best defense possible. I can think of no better way to honor a veteran than by helping in the defense of this worthy veteran. LtCol Chessani has dedicated his life to the service of his country. Had LtCol Chessani hired a private for-profit law firm to represent him, his legal bills would be approaching a million dollars at the end of the day – certainly out of reach for a career military man with six young children.”

The Law Center recently argued in front of the Navy and Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals to keep the charges dismissed against LtCol Chessani. However, even if the charges remained dismissed, the government has privately told people that they will recharge LtCol Chessani.

The Law Center is asking once again for concerned Americans to help defend LtCol Chessani. You can be a direct help in the defense of LtCol Chessani by mailing a donation to the Thomas More Law Center at 24 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive, P.O. Box 364, Ann Arbor MI 48106, or by simply donating to his defense fund through our website. Please indicate your donation is for the ‘Chessani Defense Fund.’

The two Law Center attorneys assigned to handle the case, Robert Muise and Brian Rooney, are both former Marine officers. Muise is a former infantry officer and judge advocate who served in the Persian Gulf War, and Rooney is a former judge advocate and Iraq War veteran. Another attorney, Brandon Bolling, is consulting on the case. Bolling is a former Marine Judge Advocate and veteran of Afghanistan and Africa.

Another honorable veteran, Jeremiah A. Denton, Rear Admiral US Navy (Ret.), is the Chairman of TMLC’s Advisory Board. Admiral Denton first came to the attention of the American public during a television interview arranged by his North Vietnamese captors in 1966 by giving the first confirmation that American POWs were being mistreated. Jeremiah Denton was subjected to severe torture during his nearly eight years as a POW. He became the first American military captive to be subjected to four years of solitary confinement. Denton’s extraordinary account of endurance and religious faith while imprisoned in Vietnam is a testament to the courageous spirit of America’s military service men and women.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization. You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website atwww.thomasmore.org.

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Quotes

"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR."
~ Vietnam Pilot

"In combat, honor is obtained by those who do what must be done, not what is allowed by those who refuse to fight or die for their own cause...my extremes pump fear into the enemy for generations come, your extremes cause warriors to bow in the presence of the unworthy, presenting weakness and opportunity ... well, I bow to no man"
~ Antonio Cezar Vega